Designing better dads

Designing better dads

Advice from my father

When I started my career as a 21-year-old consultant, I was working very hard and bursting with enthusiasm about my burgeoning career.

One day my father asked how I was going, and with a great sense of self-importance, I declared I was very busy and working long hours. He barely looked up from his newspaper and said 'Well, you must not be very good at your job then.’

At the time, I was I thought it was harsh, but since then, I’ve realised he wanted me to develop the habit of working efficiently and effectively.

'Smart people make difficult jobs look easy', he would say. Working as a doctor who ran a large hospital, he lived by that mantra and never seemed stressed or rushed when he worked.